Free software is simply software that respects our freedom — our freedom to learn and understand the software we are using. Free software is designed to free the user from restrictions put in place by proprietary software, and so using free software lets you join a global community of people who are making the political and ethical assertion of our rights to learn and to share what we learn with others.

Monday, June 3, 2013

HTML5 Webpage Locks 'Would Stifle Innovation'

BBC News (05/30/13)

Innovation could be held back by the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) plans to include ways to digitally lock media in the Web's core technology. These locks also could limit the ability to share images and videos, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which has formally objected to plans to include rights management in the HTML5 formatting language. EFF says the proposed rights management system, Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), would create a "black box" that the entertainment industry could use to control what is done with media online. EFF's Danny O'Brien warns that accepting EME could change the free and open way the Web currently works, possibly generating a "Web where images and pages cannot be saved or searched, ads cannot be blocked, and innovative new browsers cannot compete without explicit permission from big content companies." W3C CEO Jeffrey Jaffe says EME is necessary to provide users with a rich Web experience. "Without content protection, owners of premium video content, driven by both their economic goals and their responsibilities to others, will simply deprive the open web of key content," Jaffe says.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22714209